Vessels have announced that their fourth album, ‘The Great Distraction’, will be out on 29 Sep. The record will feature collaborations with John Grant, Django Django’s Vincent Neff, Sky Larkin’s Harkin, and The Flaming Lips – the latter of whom appear on new single ‘Deflect The Light’.

“Working with The Flaming Lips was a highlight of this whole process”, says the band’s Pete Wright. “There is no facade; Wayne Coyne lives and breathes the very same eccentricity and optimism that pervades The Flaming Lips’ music, and our entire correspondence start to finish has been a torrent of enthusiasm and silliness”.

He added: “They latched on to the spirit of the music we sent and then amplified it a thousand times over, drenching it in their unmistakeable identity but never eclipsing ours. I am so proud of what we made together”.

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Julien Baker has signed to Matador, which will give her 2015 debut album ‘Sprained Ankle’ a physical release on 17 Mar. She’s also made available the previously unreleased ‘Funeral Pyre’ and announced UK live shows at Bush Hall in London on 5 Jun and Manchester’s Deaf Institute on 6 Jun.

• Nigel Elderton off of Peer Music has been appointed as the new Chairman of collecting society PRS For Music, taking over from the departing Guy Fletcher.

• A new EP of previously unreleased David Bowie material has been released to mark what would have been his 70th birthday, which comes just before the first anniversary of his death, of course. Titled ‘No Plan’, here’s the title track.

• The Flaming Lips have released the lyric video for new single ‘We A Famly’, which features that Miley Cyrus. New album ‘Oczy Mlody’ is out on 13 Jan.

• Band-Maid have announced that they will release their new album, ‘Just Bring It’, on 10 Feb. From it, this is ‘YOLO’.

• After a year out of public view, Akai Koen have announced their return with new single ‘Yamiyo Ni Chouchin’, the theme tune for new Japanese drama series ‘Rental No Koi’.

• U2 will mark the 30th anniversary of their ‘Joshua Tree’ album by performing it in full at dates around the world this year, including at Twickenham Stadium in London on 8 Jul and Dublin’s Croke Park on 22 Jul. “It’s quite an opera”, says Bono, modestly, of the album.

The Flaming Lips have announced that they will release their new album, ‘Oczy Mlody’, on 13 Jan. The first single, ‘How??’ is out now.

As well as putting physical versions of the album on pre-sale through their website, the band are also selling a seven-inch single featuring their cover of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ and another track, ‘Jest (There Is…)’, neither of which appear on the LP.

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Vevo’s Head Of Product David Rice has left the company and a “small number” of product and engineering staff have also been let go. The remaining team now reports to interim CTO Alex Nunes. “Invest and grow”, said a spokesperson.

• Digital distribution company FUGA has signed a new deal with Ministry Of Sound. The companies parted ways in 2014, after four years of working together. But now they’re reunited. It’s beautiful. “Always”, said MoS Sales Director Eddie Jones. “Fantastic”, added FUGA CEO Pieter Van Rijn.

• Sometimes I have this incredibly strong urge to watch a video for a song called ‘Living My Life’ by Deerhunter. Now, for the first time in my life, I can satisfy that urge.

A SpongeBob SquarePants musical is coming to Broadway featuring songs written by a number of well-known musicians, including that David Bowie bloke.

Created by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the show features original songs by Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, TI, The Flaming Lips, They Might Be Giants, Lady Antebellum, Panic! At the Disco, and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. It will open in Chicago next June, before moving to New York.

Director Tina Landau told BBC News that the show would take a different turn from the TV cartoon from which it originates: “We’re taking our leads from the TV show but this is an original story, with an original design approach, and original songs written just for the occasion by an amazing array of songwriters. We will present the world of Bikini Bottom and its characters in a whole new way that can only be achieved in the live medium of the theatre”.

This is not David Bowie’s first SpongeBob link, the musician having voiced a character on the TV show in 2006. Liam Gallagher also once provided a voice for a character on the show, but apparently hasn’t been asked to contribute to the musical. What an insult.

]]>http://www.completemusicupdate.com/article/david-bowie-writes-song-for-spongebob-musical/feed/0Carla Bruni steers a French Band Aid, as Yoko Ono and co ‘Imagine’ a new UNICEF sing-alonghttp://www.completemusicupdate.com/article/carla-bruni-steers-a-french-band-aid-as-yoko-ono-and-co-imagine-a-new-unicef-sing-along/
http://www.completemusicupdate.com/article/carla-bruni-steers-a-french-band-aid-as-yoko-ono-and-co-imagine-a-new-unicef-sing-along/#respondMon, 24 Nov 2014 10:35:46 +0000http://www.completemusicupdate.com/?p=115643

As the ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ gravy train rolls on to the top of the UK singles charts (albeit amidst a climate of criticism and close examination of its ‘message’), in swoops popstar and France’s one-time first lady Carla Bruni(-Sarkozy) to captain a French edition of Band Aid. She and a cast of French artists have created a charity single titled ‘Noël est la’ (or ‘Christmas Is Here’) in order to raise money for the fight against the spread of ebola in West Africa.

Bruni and the likes of Vanessa Paradis, Lou Doillon, Téléphone’s Louis Bertignac, rapper Joey Starr, rock band Shaka Ponk and jazz guitarist/son-of-Jacques Thomas Dutronc are to release the track via Universal’s Mercury Music Group on 1 Dec, with all takings going to Band Aid.

So, that’s the Band Aid franchise, au française. Now, if it’s okay, I’d like to move the ‘charity single’ spotlight on to an entirely separate charity single for a different charity; in this case an all-star cover of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ that’s being released in aid of UNICEF, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the international children’s charity’s Convention On The Rights Of The Child.

The ‘interactive’ single, which co-stars celebrities like Yoko Ono, David Guetta, Katy Perry, Will.i.am, Idris Elba and the actress Courtney Cox, allows ordinary people to add their own voices and videos to a multi-lingual mass sing-along (via an online app), the final Guetta-mixed ‘world version’ of which will be released in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve. Participants can also upload and share their takes on the song on social media, tagging their entries #imagine.

David Guetta says of the campaign: “I’m really excited to be working with UNICEF on this incredible new project. Our ‘world’ version of Imagine will be like no other – I am proud to be a part of this collaboration. We have to get the word out that every voice counts and every child counts too”.

And UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake adds: “The Convention On The Rights Of The Child asked us all to imagine a better world for children – and calls on all of us to make that vision a reality. The #imagine project gives people across the globe a chance to join a global movement for children, lending their ideas, their visions and, not least, their voices to advance the rights of every child, everywhere”.

Info on how to donate to Unicef via The #Imagine Project, and to download the app, is available via imagine.unicef.org. And this is an introductory trailer:

Finally, sticking with the always philanthropic Yoko Ono, she and The Flaming Lips have shared their new spin on Ono and John Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’. It’s taken from a non-charitable Christmas compilation from Amazon Prime, titled ‘All Is Bright’, which is out now, and carries 40 tracks from artists like Beth Orton, Liz Phair, Ladyhawke, Tom Tom Club and… Amanda Palmer.

Anyway this is Yoko and the Lips wishin all the fans at Amazon Prime a very ‘Happy Xmas’:

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has labelled his band’s former drummer Kliph Spurlock a “hateful person” and “compulsive pathological liar” in response to Spurlock’s account of his departure from the outfit, recently published by Pitchfork.

Spurlock claimed that he had been fired from the band back in March because he had taken a stand against what he saw as a racist Facebook post by a friend of Coyne’s, Christina Fallin, in which she wore a Native American headdress.

He told Pitchfork that Coyne sent him a series of angry text messages about the incident, but that he had assumed it would blow over, as he had “become used to [Coyne’s] lightning quick temper”. But, he says, the matter escalated to the point where he was fired from the band. He also claimed that a later Instagram post by Coyne featuring a dog wearing a headdress was directly intended to mock him.

However, fellow Flaming Lips member Steven Drozd then denied that any of this had anything to do with Spurlock leaving the band, blaming instead “the usual band musical differences”.

Meanwhile in an interview with Rolling Stone last week, Coyne said: “The only thing that we would have to say about Kliph leaving is that he just was not very significant to us. And all the things he’s saying about the reason he was fired, it’s all just made-up lies. He knows we struggled with him for years and it didn’t occur to us that it seemed that significant. I don’t even use the word ‘fired’. He just doesn’t play drums with us anymore – that’s the way I’d put it”.

Addressing the situation with Fallin directly, Coyne said: “The reason that it’s connected to the Fallin thing, it’s like, ‘If you’re going to be that hateful, you can’t be associated with the Flaming Lips’. And that was one of a thousand things that he would go on his Twitter or Instagram or the fake ones that he’s created … But Christina is our friend. She’s young, and she’s trying to feel her way through social media and I don’t think she’s very good at it. And Kliph is an online bully”.

You can read Spurlock’s original statement to Pitchfork in full here, and Coyne Rolling Stone interview here.

The Flaming Lips have recorded an “immersive companion piece” to Pink Floyd’s 1973 album ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’.

Similar to their ‘Zaireeka’ album, which came on four discs designed to be played simultaneously, ‘Flaming Side Of The Moon’ is meant to be played in sync with the Pink Floyd classic. In fact, say the band: “For ideal listening conditions, fans are encouraged to seek out the original Alan Parsons-engineered quadraphonic LP mix of ‘Dark Side’, but it will work with the album on any format”.

Back in 2010, The Flaming Lips also recorded their own version of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ as a Record Store Day release. It’s not clear (because I can’t be bothered to check) if that recording will work with this accompanying piece of music.

Reception to the new recording has been, as you might expect, mixed. Some claim that it is a work of genius, some say that attempting to improve on a classic album is sacrilege. Or, put more bluntly: “YOU STUPID FUCKS, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”

The band have pressed 100 vinyl copies of the recording to distribute to friends and family. If you don’t feature in either of those categories, there’s always SoundCloud:

Ke$ha, Wayne Coyne et al first worked together on the opening track for the Lips’ ‘Heady Fwends’ album – ‘2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)’ – last year. But last week Coyne tweeted that any hopes for further collaborations were off the cards, writing: “As of now, sadly there will be no Lip$ha. I can’t say why… It is sad…”

The Flaming Lips aren’t splitting, just in case anyone thought otherwise. And you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise, because the band announced it via their official Twitter account last week. Or did they?

Well, no, they claim they didn’t, and that actually their feed was hacked by someone or other who issued the false split announcement. Which all sounds like a very likely story. In that it’s very likely to be true, particularly given the band have a split EP with Tame Impala, and a new “extended play six song thang” based on a track they taped for new film ‘Ender’s Game’, both on the way.

To recap the confusions, it all started with a tweet sent, as I said, via the Lips Twitter feed last Thursday, which read: “We have sad news. We’ve broken up…” This was followed shortly after by another message that ran “lol just joking guys”.

A third tweet, permitted to stay on the band’s tweet page, states: “That last announcement was a bit premature”. It’s accompanied by an image that appears to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary.

And meanwhile, Wayne Coyne allayed fans fears’ a bit more by saying: “The Flaming Lips Twitter has been hijacked!”

And that’s that. Now let’s not mention any of this silliness ever, ever again.

Organisers of South By Southwest have announced the winners of the inaugural Grulke Prize, three new awards to be presented each year at the Austin showcase festival and uber-convention in honour of Brent Grulke, the event’s longtime Creative Director who died last August.

Two of the new prizes go to Developing Acts, new artists, one American and one non-US, who “are breaking new ground with their creativity and show the most promise in achieving their career goals”. And the first winners of those prizes are Haim and Chvrches.

A third prize, called the Career Act award, goes to “an established artist who appeared at SXSW 2013 to reinvent themselves or launch an important new project”. And the first of those goes to The Flaming Lips, for their various activities at this year’s festival.

The Flaming Lips have only gone and flaming done it again… ‘it’ meaning releasing music via weird media. Past ventures have included real human skulls and gummy foeti, for example.

This time, Wayne Coyne and co have bequeathed loving fans a Valentines treat in the shape of new USB-stick based LP ‘Songs Of Love’. The fifteen track mix is set into an anatomically realistic (and edible) replica of a human heart made of “72% South American dark chocolate studded with hazelnut mini whoppers and waffle cone crunch”. Mmm, coronary candy.

Although unlike Austrian musician Soap&Skins’ offering in that confectionary genre, it doesn’t contain real blood. What a cop out.

Anyway. All the hearts made so far have been purchased, but you can nevertheless lust over one via this link.

That Wayne and his Flaming Lips are ‘unleashing’ ‘The Terror’ on April Fools Day, ‘The Terror’ being the name of their thirteenth studio LP. It’s a “darker-hued spectrum” of tracks than what they’ve done in the past – if that’s possible – and Coyne muses thus in its favour:

“Why would we make this music that is ‘The Terror’ – this bleak, disturbing record? I don’t really want to know the answer that I think is coming: that WE were hopeless, WE were disturbed and, I think, accepting that some things are hopeless… or letting hope in one area die so that hope can start to live in another? Maybe this is the beginning of the answer”.

Delving deeper, he adds: “We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear. That love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. ‘The Terror’ is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on… we just go on… there is no mercy killing”.

The Flaming Lips will play here twice towards promoting ‘The Terror’, at London’s Roundhouse on 20 and 21 May.

So, the Flaming Lips want to release a “freaky” new concert film, and who am I to say ‘no’.

The band are set to share feature-length footage of the free ‘Freak Night’ show they played at the Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheatre, so watch a predictably freaky and NSFW preview clip of that in the meantime:

The Flaming Lips have signed a new worldwide publishing deal with BMG Chrysalis, the company announced yesterday. The band’s manager, Scott Booker told CMU: “I’m very excited to be working with the long time Flaming Lips fans at BMG Chrysalis. The passion for the band and the new material we’ve been working on over the last couple of years has been expressed to me by Kate Hyman, Jason Hradil, and the UK office for quite a while”.

The there mentioned Kate Hyman, Senior SVP Creative of BMG Chrysalis US, added: “I’m looking forward to working with such a creative group of writers and helping the band to increase the value of their songs. The coolest job in the world is where you get to work with The Flaming Lips”.

The band are currently working on their next studio album, which is scheduled for release early next year.

While quite what happened in the making of the video for their collaboration with Erykah Badu remains unclear (you’ll remember Badu expressed considerable displeasure at the final cut, which included her lookalike sister very naked indeed, writhing in some suspect solutions), we know for certain that The Flaming Lips are definitely on good terms with London indie Bella Union, who are set to bring the band’s collaborations album, on which Badu appears, to us Brits.

A delighted Wayne Coyne and co confirmed their alliance with the London label on Friday, and ‘The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends’, with its duets with Bon Iver, Tame Impala, Neon Indian and Nick Cave as well as Badu, will now arrive in UK record stores on 30 Jul via the Union. The label said it was “truly thrilled” to be signing “one of our all-time favourite bands”.

The Bella Union roster has also just acquired American songwriter and ‘one man band’ Jack Tatum, aka Wild Nothing, the label having signed the alt-pop soloist in time to issue his sophomore long player ‘Nocturne’ on 27 Aug. The first single from it, ‘Shadow’, is out slightly sooner as a 7-inch on 6 Aug, and you can listen to it here:

And why not have a tracklisting, too:

Shadow
Midnight Song
Nocturne
Through The Glass
Only Heather
This Chain Won’t Break
Disappear Always
Paradise
Counting Days
The Blue Dress
Rheya

Erykah Badu and Wayne Coyne have been having an argument on Twitter over the video for a Flaming Lips song on which she provided guest vocals. The song, a cover of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, appears on the band’s ‘Heady Fwends’ album, which was released on limited edition vinyl for Record Store Day earlier this year and is due to be made available on CD and download on 25 Jun.

Things started well when last Thursday Coyne posted photos from the video to Twitter. The candid shots led many fans to believe that Badu appeared naked in the video, though she clarified that it was actually her younger sister Nayrok Udab who filed the nude scenes, then tweeted Coyne directly to tell him: “It looks beautiful. Nayrok looks amazing. You are a true visionary”.

Things changed the next day, however, when the video was premiered on Pitchfork, showing a very naked Nayrok bathing in glitter and (what look kind of like) blood and semen. On Saturday morning it was removed from Vimeo without any reason being given. Then on Wednesday The Flaming Lips issued a statement saying: “The video link that was erroneously posted on Pitchfork by The Flaming Lips of the music video ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’, which features Erykah Badu, is unedited and unapproved. Sorry! We, The Flaming Lips, accept full responsibility for prematurely having Pitchfork post it. It has outraged and upset a segment of fans and we apologise if we offended any viewers! This is a Flaming Lips video which features Erykah Badu and her sister Nayrok and is not meant to be considered an Erykah Badu or Nayrok statement, creation, or approved version”.

Coyne then also tweeteda similarstatement saying that the band were “very sorry if it has offended some of Erykah Badu’s more conservative audience”. But Badu wasn’t happy, and she posted a lengthy response, claiming that Coyne had done “everything wrong from the onset”.

Badu, of course, is no stranger to nudity in music videos, having previously been forced to defend the promo for her own ‘Window Seat’, in which she stripped and pretended to be shot dead at the spot where JFK was killed in 1963. Badu protested that the point she was trying to make had been missed, but nonetheless the public nudity cost her a fine and six months probation.

In her response to Coyne she noted this, saying: “Even with ‘Window Seat’ there was a method and thought process involved. I have not one need for publicity. I just love artistic dialogue. And just because an image is shocking does not make it art. You obviously have a misconception of who I am artistically”.

In this case, she complained: “You [Coyne] showed me a concept of beautiful tasteful imagery (by way of vid text messages). I trusted that. I was mistaken. Then you release an unedited, unapproved version within the next few days”.

Describing the production process, she went on: “You begged me to sit in a tub of that other shit and I said naw. I refused to sit in any liquid that was not water. But out of RESPECT for you and the artist you ‘appear’ to be, I didn’t wanna kill your concept, wanted you to at least get it out of your head … So, I invited Nayrok, my lil sis and artist, who is much more liberal, to be subject of those other disturbing (to me) scenes. I told you from jump that I believed your concept to be disturbing. But would give your edit a chance”.

She continued: “You then said you would take my shots (in clear water/fully covered parts – seemed harmless enough) and Nayrok’s part (which I was not present for but saw the photos and a sample scene of cornstarch dripping) and edit them together along with cosmic, green screen images (which no one saw) then would show me the edit”.

She finished by saying: “On behalf of all the artists you have manipulated or plan to manipulate, find another way. These things have been said out of necessity. And if you don’t like it, you can kiss my glittery ass”.

Presumably he didn’t like it, because Coyne’s response came: “Hey [Erykah] I kissed it!”, along with this picture.

The pair then set about retweeting seemingly endless comments (both positive and negative) from fans, Coyne jumping in twice to message Badu to say: “You hatin on me has gotten the video 100,000 more views [because the video has been unofficially reuploaded several times] … you said we gonna make a video that is controversial and gets everybody talkin! You the master! Love you”.

She came back: “Enjoy your fruits. You’ll surely need them later, brother. I’m just a man you met in the restroom”.

Coyne’s final comments in particular have fanned a theory that this whole dispute has actually been staged, though Badu continues to defend her comments against angry Flaming Lips fans (in fact, the have both continued to tweet and retweet hundreds of times over the last few days). And watching the video, you can see why it might go further than she was expecting and why she might not be entirely happy.

And one more Record Store Day release, the Flaming Lips have confirmed they will also launch a limited edition new record on 21 Apr, it being the one we already knew was in development featuring various guest stars, or ‘fwends’.

The headline sort of says it all… but I’ll elaborate somewhat by saying that proof has emerged of a partnership between The Flaming Lips and US electro-pop tart Ke$ha.

Already rumoured to be courting the ‘Tik Tok’ singer to appear on their album of collaborations with other artists (which also features Bon Iver, Neon Indian and Nick Cave), Wayne Coyne et al and have since shared a number of videos proving that it’s all, in fact, true. They posted a bizarre series of photos and in-studio clips in which Ke$ha is seen at work on several psychedelic Lips confections, while Coyne tweeted: “She’s crazy… But shit! She can really fucking SING!”

Wow, an endorsement that’s inappropriate on so many levels. And yet, accurate in parts. That’s assuming he means that Ke$ha is shit.

Following news that they were seeking out acts to collaborate with on their new album, The Flaming Lips have named Bon Iver as the latest of several artists already confirmed to work on said untitled LP. Justin Vernon joins an assorted company that also includes Nick Cave, Death Cab For Cutie and Neon Indian.

Rolling Stone reports that Lykke Li, Erykah Badu and – least likely of all – Ke$ha – also feature on the Lips’ list of desired duet partners. I’ll believe that last one if and when I hear it. The collaborations album is slated for release around Record Store Day, which this year falls on 21 Apr.

Leslie Feist has expressed an interest in collaborating with The Flaming Lips and Mastodon, we assume separately. Referring to the Lips, who this year have released EPs in partnership with Neon Indian and Prefuse 73, she told HitFix: “I heard Wayne Coyne is doing a series of collaborations. I need to get in on that, man. We just need find each other in some city while we’re on tour. Flaming Lips are one of my favourite bands”.

Feist encountered metallers Mastodon on a recent edition of ‘Later… With Jools Holland’. She was there to promote her new album ‘Metals’, while the band were appearing in support of their latest LP ‘The Hunter’.

Feist recalls the experience: “[The band’s] Brent [Hinds] and I were nodding at each other, and he’s like, ‘nice riff’, and I’m like, ‘nice tone’. So backstage I’m thinking about letting these two worlds collide, how they should collide, so I’m like, ‘how about ‘Metals’ meeting metal?’ Brent was like: ‘Well, I do like that ‘Bad In Each Other’ song, I could see that’. Maybe now I will look into learning to cover ‘Oblivion’… or anything off [‘The Hunter’]. That album’s amazing”.

The Flaming Lips are streaming their new 24 hour long song, ‘7 Skies H3’, as we speak as a special Halloween treat.

As previously reported, the band released a six hour song in September, in which fans could have their names featured for $100 (and which you can listen to here). But this turned out to be a warm up for the main event, a 24 hour long song saved on a hard drive embedded inside a human skull. Or skulls, as several have been produced and priced at just $5000 each. Bargain.

Although the originally announced batch of five albums-in-a-skull sold out immediately, the band have now made more available, so if you fancy owning one (or you just want to listen to the song for free online), head over to this site.